The Turpin teen, above with her parents and siblings, told the 911 dispatcher she lived ‘in filth’ and her sisters were ‘chained up’.

Crime

I live behind the ‘house of horrors’

by Megan Palin in Riverside, California

19th Apr 2019 7:40 PM

A GROUP of young kids celebrating a birthday party played games, giggled, opened presents and shared food as adults doted over them in a suburban backyard.

They had no way of knowing about the horror that was taking place right under their noses, in Perris, about 110 kms south of Los Angeles in the US.

In a modest, one-storey home over the fence, the 12 eldest Turpin family children were being viciously beaten, starved, chained to furniture and tortured by their parents. Some of them had endured the abuse from infancy into adulthood. It had been going on for years.

But it wasn't until David, 57, and Louise Turpin, 50, were arrested for the prolonged abuse and torture of their children that their neighbours discovered the truth about what officials later dubbed "the house of horrors".

The back of the former Turpin home. A neighbour who lived just metres away said there was no sign children lived in the house. Picture: news.com.au

One neighbour, who shares a back fence with the Turpins' former home and spoke on the condition she wasn't named, has lived in her house for about four years. Remarkably, she didn't even know there were children living in the house over the fence until after their parents were arrested and charged with 14 felony counts of abusing and imprisoning 12 of their 13 kids.

David Turpin and his wife Louise Turpin have pleaded guilty to multiple charges of abuse against their children. Picture: Riverside County Sheriff's Department/AP

It's a revelation that has prompted feelings of intense guilt for some of those who were close to the situation but unaware of it at the time.

"We have had lots of kids' birthday parties for my son who is now seven, and my niece, out the back and never even knew kids lived over there," the woman said.

"We didn't see any of them once or hear a single voice or laugh or cry.

"It's devastating to think all of that was going on while we had kids running around, having fun basically outside their back door."

Just metres away. The view from the neighbour’s back deck to the single-storey Turpin home on the other side of the fence. Picture: news.com.au

The woman's back deck, where she and her family spend hours most evenings, is just metres from the back door of the address where the Turpins subjected their children to years of hell.

While she says there were no signs of children, she did notice odd behaviour in the home.

"The lights inside the house were on all night long every night," she said.

"We thought drug dealers must have been living there because we never saw one person in that house or heard a sound from them."

"We found out in the news … I just feel so sorry for those kids.

"We are so sad we were so close to those kids and we did nothing."

The children with their parents on a rare outing when their parents renewed their vows. Picture: Supplied

Her comments come on the eve of the Turpins' sentencing. They're each face between 25 years and life in jail after pleading guilty to torture, cruelty to an adult dependent, child cruelty and false imprisonment.

The Turpin's house now sits vacant with black tarp on the front windows and overgrown grass out the back. A notice on the front window instructs people to call a contracting service company in the event of "emergency, violation or city ordinance violations". News.com.au understands the home has been sold and is undergoing internal renovations.

The front of the Turpin home where the children where found. Picture: news.com.au

The siblings, aged between two years and 29, who were found severely malnourished and covered in filth inside the home are understood to be thriving in their new lives, made possible after one of them escaped and called police in January 2018.